SCO/142/08 Thursday 18 September 2008

Leadership key to securing offshore safety, say regulators

Over 50 of the most senior managers of companies operating in the North Sea offshore oil and gas industry were today reminded that leadership is the key to securing offshore safety. At an international summit organised by the North Sea Offshore Authorities Forum ( NSOAF) regulators and industry discussed health and safety challenges facing the offshore industry and the essential role leadership plays in tackling them.

Other issues raised included asset integrity, competence and capacity, new technology and organisational development.

Speaking at the summit, Ian Whewell, Head of HSE’s Offshore Division said: "The key to embedding a successful safety culture is strong and active leadership from the top. Those who create risks are best placed to manage them. I am encouraged by the level of commitment being shown by those here today, but we should not underestimate the size of the task ahead for the sector nor the range of challenges to safety the industry faces"

Magne Ognedal, Director General Petroleum Safety Authority, Norway, said: "The hard learned lessons from catastrophic incidents like the Alexander Kielland capsizing and Piper Alpha explosion and fire seem to be getting forgotten by the industry. This must be addressed because improvements in the issues of process safety being discussed today are badly needed. It is the responsibility of industry supported by the regulator to do so and a key step towards achieving this is for the lessons to be known and understood inside a company, between companies, inside regulators and between regulators."

Speaking at the conference Jan De Jong, Inspector General of Dutch State Supervision of Mines focusing on asset integrity and the lessons the offshore industry can learn from BP’s Texas refinery explosion in 2005 , said: "To improve process safety the offshore industry needs to apply the same attention to major hazards offshore that was present immediately after the Piper Alpha disaster. Industry leaders have a responsibility to ensure that their organisations keep them to the forefront of their mind when they make decisions relating to process safety."

Discussing the subject of mutual benefits for improving safety Anne Højer Simonsen, Deputy Director General, Danish Energy Agency said: "To be a zero-incident industry we need to learn from best practices not only in the offshore industry but also from other industries in the North Sea countries and in other parts of the world. Our success in achieving this best practice can be gauged by using the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These enable the industry to identify weaknesses in its own process safety management systems and allow appropriate actions to be taken before a catastrophic incident can happen. It is, therefore, essential that we focus on further development of KPIs in the offshore sector."

Note to Editors

1. The safety leadership in the upstream oil and gas industry conference took place at the Ardoe House Hotel in Aberdeen on 18 September 2008.
2. NSOAF consists of representatives of authorities responsible for the regulation or supervision of offshore activities bordering the North Sea or adjacent to it in North West Europe. The current membership represents Denmark, Faroe Islands, Germany, Republic of Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Other appropriate countries may be invited to join from time to time.
3. NSOAF is set up to consider issues within the responsibility of the member authorities in the development of the offshore activities in the North Sea and adjacent areas. The aims of the forum are:
   • To exchange information and views on matters of mutual interest;
   • To discuss issues relating to offshore activities with a view to developing a common approach to such issues;
   • To co-operate in cross boundary activities;
   • To develop and adopt common procedures/standards where appropriate; and
   • To exchange views and co-operate with other relevant international bodies.
4. Speakers at the conference were Kevin Myers, head of HSE Hazardous Installations Directorate; Christian Guéritte, Managing Director of Total E&P Netherlands; John Hollowell, Vice President Shell UK Exploration and Production; Magne Ognedal, Director General Petroleum Safety Authority, Norway; and Tore Torvund, Executive Vice President Exploration and Production Norway, Statoil Hydro AS.
5. 5 Photographs from the event are available on request

COI contact details

For further information:

Paul Burgess: Tel: 0131 244 9061/9060

Jackie Woods on 0131 244 9061/ 07714 520 869

Public enquiries:

HSE's InfoLine:  0845 3450055
Caerphilly Business Park, Caerphilly CF83 3GG

HSE information and news releases can be accessed on the Internet at www.hse.gov.uk

Issued on behalf of HSE by COI News and PR Scotland www.coi.gov.uk